Linda Young - Fireside Chat with Lyndon Linklater

Linda Young

Fireside Chat with Lyndon Linklater

Remai Modern Gallery

On April 6th, my doctoral student Linda Young, joined host Lyndon Linklater for a Virtual Fireside Chat at the Remai Modern Gallery in Saskatoon. Linda is currently one of the artists whose work is on display in the exhibition entitled, An Apology, A Pill, A Ritual, and a Resistance, running from March through June, 2021. Linda discussed the inspiration behind, as well as the creation and re-creation of her installation, kôhkominawak (Our Grandmothers). The seven figures in her installation represent Cree grandmothers (kohkoms) in prayer. In silence and in strength. Linda’s installation is informed by and imbued with the ceremony, teachings and medicines shared with her by her great-grandmother, and honours the other matriarchs in her life. In her talk last evening, we were gifted with Linda’s teachings about kinship, insights into the strong spirituality guiding and within her work, and a sense of her story as a fourth generation residential school survivor.

As a great-grandmother now herself, as a Cree speaker, an artist, and a doctoral student at the University of Saskatchewan, Linda is touching so many lives in profound ways. Her teachings are gentle yet evocative, and her stories are educative and life-changing. She spoke with such passion and eloquence last evening.